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For all the coverage of the Spring 2009 lines debuting in Milan and Paris, we rather liked the looks coming down the runway of Gaspard Yurkievich. The references in shape and embellishment to medieval garb reinforce Yurkievich's image of the modern man--youthful, confident and ready to face the world.

This all makes sense, since in many ways Gaspard Yurkievich represents what a modern independent design house should and could be. Yurkievich designs men's and women's ready-to-wear, bolstered by a strong accessories program. Most will encounter Yurkievich tights, coming in fun, sexy colors and textiles and carried at many boutiques around the world, before they ever see a separate or dress. The Internet? Yurkievich has embraced it. The label's site comes complete with an e-shop, and yes even a blog. They even maintain a Flickr stream with shots from lookbooks, press clippings and the like.

Ever since we featured Odeur on these pages, we've been looking for an online stockist of the perfectly understated Swedish T-shirt/men's clothing brand. We just stumbled on shirts and hoodies from Odeur's S/S 2008 collection at Freudian Kicks. Now you need only find a friend that understands Norwegian.

032c looks at 20 years of Martin Margiela via, what else, magazine covers and cut outs.

Spring 1993, Line 11

Fall 1999, Line 10

Spring 2000, Line 1

Fall 2003, Line 10

Spring 2007, Line 0

(Editors note: Over the next several days, we will be featuring a few choice excerpts from the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of 032c.)

All of Stephan Schneider's designs begin with the textiles (which are custom designed each season) and that's where we need to start looking at one of his collections. For Fall 2008, traditional striped and plaid patterns are presented in softened versions, with washed out colors on textured fabrics. Even when pattern isn't there, solid pieces use texture, which, when layered, create their own pattern of sorts.

Schneider's womenswear has always been of the menswear for women variety and this season is no different. Button down shirts, over-sized sweaters and tailored jackets look cozy but put together.

You guys have been on a roll with the international store suggestions lately. After several superb suggestions in Norway and Iceland, the latest is Azita in Frankfurt. The quintessentially urban store is rife with energetic, young talent.

F-Troupe

Reality Studio

S.N.S. Herning

Siv Stoldal

Surface To Air

Surface To Air

Wood Wood

Azita's own T-shirt line has an '80s exercise clothing color pallete, and geometries reminiscent of early video games. We're fans.

We had a feeling Reykjavik would be a cool place to shop. Say hello to Kronkron, a Reykjavik shop stocking some of the more interesting Scandinavian and European labels. And if you're not planning a visit anytime soon, we'd try out their online shopping. If only because it'd be super cool to get a package from Iceland.

Bernhard Willhelm

Opening Ceremony

Stine Goya

B Store

Eric Lebon

S.N.S. Herning

Siv Støldal

B Store has a great lineup for spring.

Ute Ploier

Ute Ploier

Peter Jensen

Hartmann Nordenholz

Back

Peter Jensen

b-Store

Henrik Vibskov check shirt at Stand Up Comedy ($175)

Rick Owens striped cardigan at Oki-Ni (£295)

This weekend we were wandering around the Pratt store when we stumbled upon a copy of Raf Simons Redux, a retrospective of the first 10 years of Raf Simons' work (1995-2005). The book is divided among various themes that have been explored in Simons' collections throughout the years, like "Youth" or "Machines" or "Future." Looking at the photos, Simons' substantial influence on men's fashion is remarkably obvious. Ideas and concepts just filtering down to mass market lines were explored at depth by Simons' years before.

We thought you would enjoy some scans from the book.

Many an American would love to pay extra taxes for socialized medicine, but we're pretty sure no American is excited about paying extra taxes for other people's socialized medicine. With that in mind, Très Bien now removes the 25% VAT tax from non-EU orders. Also, the shop now ships international orders via UPS for faster delivery.

While we're here, let's look at some new arrivals.

Hot on the heels of our mention of Norway's Pepper, someone suggested Freudian Kicks, a fine indie shop in Oslo. The shop mixes hip Scandinavian labels with some intriguing European names.

We loved Freudian Kicks' excellent selection of Gaspard Yurkievich, including men's stuff that we hadn't seen anywhere else before.

Then there's the sneakers by Swedish label Sneaky Steve. While we're now pretty sure we've seen over 43,200 pairs of leather men's hightops, we still couldn't resist the label's simple, relatively affordable version.

And finally if you have been following along long enough you know we love us a nice print T-shirt, so we were delighted to find Norway's own Daonefootedgoose, a tiny T-shirt operation doing interesting and artful prints.

By the way, in case you're having trouble converting Norwegian Kroner to dollars or haven't figured out that "Vis Alle" mean "View All", our suggester tells us that a English version of their site will debut later this year (yeah, yeah, we'll let you know when it's up).

Material Boy dots and stripes tank top at Seven ($75)

Comme des Garcons' guerilla stores are meant to be temporary experiments in avant-garde retail. But in the case of the very first guerilla store that opened in Berlin in 2004 the experiment didn't stop when CdG left town. The organizers of the store continued the operation, reincarnated as Lil Shop. Lil Shop sells vintage Comme des Garcons and Junya Watanbe in addition to CdG accessories, selections from the current season, and various other accessories. The shop resigned their site late last year, and now offers online shopping.

(These awesome necklaces are exclusive to Lil Shop)

Claude Maus' Winter 2008 collection was inspired by time spent in an eco-home in the Victorian highlands.